Late show eases Rafa pressure

By James Dall

Last Updated: 20/02/08 8:57am

Liverpool ground down a drilled Internazionale side as Dirk Kuyt and Steven Gerrard struck late goals in the first leg of their UEFA Champions League last 16 encounter to ease the pressure on manager Rafa Benitez

The Reds were restricted to just glimpses of goal by Inter, who played an hour of the fixture with 10 men, until the 85th minute when Kuyt fired home before Gerrard struck in the final moments to send Anfield delirious.

The Serie A champions were somewhat harshly reduced to 10 men on 30 minutes, with Marco Materazzi receiving two yellow cards after a pair of soft fouls on Fernando Torres - the first an accidental clip of the heels and the second a minimal tug on the Spaniard's shirt.

With Liverpool struggling to create, a 0-0 stalemate looked likely, until Kuyt's deflected effort left goalkeeper Julio Cesar with not a prayer and Gerrard hit a vicious long-range strike in off the post.

Handled

Torres drove another effort inches wide before Peter Crouch was ushered into the fray in place of Lucas in the 64th minute. Seven minutes later it was Jermaine Pennant's turn in place of Ryan Babel.

In the 75th minute the excellent Ivan Cordoba was carried off after falling awkwardly, with Nicolas Burdisso coming on. Crouch had another effort blocked and Steve Finnan blasted the rebound high into the Kop.

But then the breakthrough came. With five minutes left Pennant fired a cross back into a packed box and it flew on to Kuyt on the left, who saw his right-foot shot flick off Maicon and high past Cesar. Anfield erupted.

A minute from time Gerrard took possession on the far right corner of the box and fired the second home off the far post to seal the success.